A surprise 8% fall in recorded crime in England and Wales has unexpectedly extended the longest sustained drop in the crime rate since the second world war.
The latest quarterly crime figures published today covering the 12 months to June 2010 show an 8% fall in police recorded crime and a 4% drop in offences reported by the British Crime Survey.
The continuing fall in the crime rate, which has dropped more than 45% since 1995, suggests that the predicted recession-fuelled crime wave has so far been avoided – probably matching the less than feared rises in unemployment.
The Home Office published crime figures showing falls in nearly all offences on both measures – police recorded and British Crime Survey – with the largest drops recorded in criminal damage (down 17% to 768,000), car crime (down 16% to 479,000), domestic burglary (down 8% to 263,000) and robbery (down 7% to 74,000). Gun crime is also down 2% to 7,900 incidents.
The only category in the police recorded crime figures to rise was sexual offences (up 8% to 55,217) but the police cautioned against interpreting this as an increase in actual attacks as opposed to improved recording methods.
The total number of offences recorded by police in the year to June 2010 was 4.2m – the lowest level since 1989.
Although repeated opinion polls show that two-thirds of people believe the national crime rate has risen in recent years, official figures show continuing declines in the levels of anxiety over crime.
The overall proportion of people who say they live in an area with high levels of anti-social behaviour fell from 16% to 14% in the last year. Falls were also reported on six of the seven measures of anti-social behaviour, including vandalism, graffiti, public drunkenness and teenagers hanging around the streets. The exception was noisy neighbours, which is a serious problem for 11% of those surveyed.
The proportion of people with a high level of worry about violent crime fell to 13% of people responding to the British Crime Survey.
The Association of Chief Police Officers' head of crime and chief constable of Warwickshire, Keith Bristow, said the latest figures showed police were continuing to play their part in driving down crime.
"The police recorded crime rates show falls in all violence categories, robbery, burglary, theft, fraud, drugs, vehicle crime and criminal damage, however we are not complacent," he said.
The Guardian
